Lay It Down
by xlearntofall
Summary: Steve was supposed to be the boss. Kono was supposed to be the rookie. That was it. But when Steve starts gaining feelings for Kono more than that of mentor and student, how much will it take to bring her guard down and let her heart take over?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey, this is my first story on ever and I recently got obsessed with Hawaii Five-0 just in time for the second season which is premiering next month. I can't wait. Every time I watch something I just have to ship someone. And in this case, that someone is KoVe. This was inspired by John Mayer's "Heartbreak Warfare" and it may come off as slightly AU at some points since that's how my mind works. **

**P.S. I do not own Hawaii Five-0. Just the imagination behind the**** story.**

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><p>"Wow. You'd think a man living in Hawaii all these years could do without the tie," Kono teased as she flicked the thick piece of fabric that ran down from her partner's neck to where it dangled down his chest.<p>

"Hey, hey, hey," Danny cried with a hand held out to the brunette in halt, "watch it. This is silk." He brought his hand back down to smooth it out as Kono laughed from where she was, sitting across of him on his desk. "You know, you'd feel the same way if your only daughter who you barely get to see thanks to the ex-wife and stupid Step-Stan gave it to you for Father's Day, too."

She smirked. "Fine. You win this time." She raised her hands up in defeat before bringing them back down to take a turn smoothing it out. When Danny gave her a wary look she laughed, "Relax, Danno. It's the least I could do."

He didn't want to admit it especially with Kono in the same breathing space as him, but he liked when people touched his hair or his clothes. Not in a lustful way. I mean, it was Kono of all people. It was innocent. Having things done for you every once in a while, more or less by a woman, made him calm.

"You smell nice."

Kono looked up at his piercing blue eyes, snickering. "Are you trying to imply something?"

"What? Is it illegal for someone to give a beautiful woman like yourself a compliment?"

"Only if that someone is Detective Danny Williams, yeah," she retaliated, her dimpled smile appearing at its regular place as she sat back admiring the chuckle that escaped Danny's lips.

It was supposed to be like any other day at the Five-0 headquarters with a few minor alterations. News of another mob of cocaine dealers from the mainlands had migrated their way to the islands, a case that McGarrett had promised to take care of by the end of the day. Kono wasn't needed for her routine duty as an undercover aid this time since according to McGarrett this case was "made for men". Being the only woman on the team followed by the fact she was still just a rookie left her with no proper backing in a three-against-one war. Fortunately Danny, having taken some harder blows to the leg while tracking down an escaped convict last week, had no other option but to accompany her while Chin took his regular position on the field today. Neither Chin nor the boss had called to update them on the case which left plenty of time for them to just sit back until told otherwise.

"Seriously, none of you guys have any faith in me, I swear. Kid, if I could choose anyone in this world for you to marry and shoot out feisty little munchkins with one day it'd probably be our very own SuperSeal."

On that note, Kono gave him a look. Sure, Steve was good looking. Hell, he was fucking gorgeous. But he was just one of those men in her life she would rather drop dead than ever see as a potential love interest. "Are you kidding? McGarrett? Thanks, but no thanks," she replied with disgust.

The sound of someone clearing their throat in the background, neither of whom were Danny or Kono, was followed by a familiar gruff male voice, "Sorry to interrupt Regis and Kelly, I'm totally fine aside from the fact that the entire right side of my face feels like my skin is slowly deteriorating, but thanks for the concern," he said as Danny and Kono turned to face Steve with dumbfounded expressions.

"Oh, hell-o," Danny said as he stood up from his seat on the desk to take a good look at the ripe purple bruises tattooed at the corner of his partner's chin and the very tip of his accentuated cheekbone. "Did your hazardous driving habits finally get the best of you?" he joked as he leaned in to take the bruises in.

Steve continued to frown down at his partner as grim as ever. "Very funny," he replied as he slid open Danny's drawers to reveal an almost empty bottle of aspirin. It was better to numb some of the pain now, at least mentally, than wait until later when it was worse.

"What, is there a party in my office I didn't know about?"

"Boss, I think you should really get that checked. It looks pretty bad," Kono commented as she eyed the blackened marks on his usually un-blemished skin with concern.

"I'm fine. Don't worry. Besides, I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't have a reason to be," he said eerily, leading Danny and Kono out to the main room where Chin was busying himself at the touchscreen. A manila folder was laid open on the side, stacks of papers and documents sprawled out on the table as an array of letters and codes appeared on the screen. "Chin, update them."

Danny, limping behind with walking stick in hand, cleared his throat in preparation for the next smartass comment he was about to make. "Couldn't you have called instead? There's a reason phones were invented."

Steve rolled his eyes, "I'm sorry, Danny. I am so sorry for interrupting your little flirt session back there to do what I hired you to do," he responded, his volume rising with every other word. "And they destroyed them before I could make the call," he added, referring to Romero's hitmen.

"You know at this point you might as well just buy a year's supply of extras at once to save you the trip."

Chin glanced up quickly, suspicion glazed over his eyes as he observed the three of them back and forth. "Is there something I should know?" Despite the fact that he was silent for the rest of the awkward pause, waiting for an answer, his eyes clearly spoke death.

"It's nothing, Cuz. I promise," she reassured her over-protective cousin. She admired how much he cared so deeply for her, but he had to understand she was old enough to take care of herself. After all, she did grow up as one of the guys. She was pretty capable of holding her own. "So what happened to Romero?"

"Turns out there's a lot more to the story than we bargained for," Chin replied as he focused all his attention back on the screen in front of him, temporarily blowing off the whole ordeal with his cousin for now.

"Why? What do you mean?"

Chin turned away from the touch screen to face the rest of the team while he fiddled with the stack of papers sitting beside him. "So you know how the whole time we've been trying to take down that cocaine dealer Juan Romero?" He waited a beat before continuing. "Well, it looks like we overlooked more information than we thought did." He flipped through the folder to reveal a handful of crumpled pages seemingly torn out of a tarnished journal, faint scribbles splotched over every line. "See these?" he said as he spread them out on the table. "I found them while we were scouting out their warehouse. According to theses specific pages, cocaine isn't the only thing Romero's dealing. Turns out he's got a little trafficking business abroad on the mainlands, too, so all the work we've put into settling the case today is far from complete."

"How did today go? Miss me?" Danny smirked.

"Yeah, definitely," Steve replied sarcastically, his face resuming to its regular constipated expression. "We got rid of most of his men at the scene, but without working phones we couldn't call for backup. That means Romero is still out there. However, this time he knows we're out to get him which raises the stakes higher than usual."

"Ouch. Looks like you took a pretty bad beating for no reason then, brah," Kono half-teased.

Chin tossed the folder back on the table while Steve stepped forward to face the team as a whole. "We're going to have to work more intently on this now that Romero's escaped. So understand the moment we step into Five-0 headquarters tomorrow morning, we are on this case." He briefly turned his attention to Chin, pointing at him and Danny. "You two will stay here to research the rest of the case. Chin, you have enough information and data in possession to kick start it."

"And let me guess. I'm stuck here because I'm a cripple, right?" he asked with his arms crossed.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Danno." As Danny took a few steps back, rolling his eyes, he shifted his body to peer down at Kono who now stood in front of him. "Kono, I know what I said earlier about saying this was solely a man's job but you're the only one on the team who is capable of going out on the field." She nodded in understanding, glad the boss was finally giving her a chance. "Not that everyone knows their roles, Danny, can I talk to you?" he said, singling the handicapped detective out with a universal hand gesture. "Everyone else, go home."

"See you, boss," Chin called as he gathered the papers that spilled out of the folder with him on his way out the door with Kono trailing close behind him.

"Bye, Danny. And you better get that checked like you promised, okay, boss?" she smiled right before walking out of the room to leave the two alone to talk.

The moment Steve was aware the cousins were clearly out of earshot he turned to Danny who was comfortably seated at his desk, waiting for whatever lecture was to come his way today. "What's going on?" he asked, his hands firmly resting on either side of Danny's desk as he leaned forward to leer down at him.

Danny shrugged his shoulders, holding his hands up and scrunching his eyes eyebrows in genuine confusion. "With what? If you're referring to Rachel then I'd say quite well for someone who wants nothing to do with me."

Steve rolled his eyes, peeved. "You and Kono, that's what. What's going on?"

"Nothing," he chuckled in reply.

"What do you mean "nothing"? "Nothing" as in nothing or "nothing" as in we totally have a thing right now that we refuse to tell the rest of the team?"

That question was enough to catch Danny's attention to make him rise from his seat, forgetting how much it hurt to balance his weight on his crippled leg. "You think something's going on between us? Me and Kono?" he was bewildered. That thought had never once crossed his mind. "I promise you nothing is going on between us. She's like a little sister to me, that'd be like incest." He was defending himself but it was true. Danny loved her. He adored her. But even if Chin wasn't there to murder him if they ever did decide to hook up he couldn't bring himself to love her the way he should.

"That better be it, Danny. The worst thing you could do is get involved with someone on the team. It's just inevitable for destruction."

Reaching for his walking stick, Danny chuckled. "Well then you better practice what you preach, eh, Steven?" he joked as he walked out the door, leaving Steve alone in his office to decipher the message behind his words.

Steve shook his head, blowing it off and assuming it was the mental and physical pain from the bruise that was forcing him to overthink everything. After a while of debating on what to do, he made his way out the door, closing it more forcibly than he intended. All he really needed right now was ointment, an ice pack, and some Nyquil to help him sleep it all off until the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews guys. It definitely motivated me to keep writing. This is the first time I've ever written a legit fanfiction rather than an original story so this truly means alot to me. And just a heads up, this chapter is more centered on our favorite H50 couple Steve and Kovo.**

**P.S. I do not own Hawaii Five-0. Just the imagination behind the story.**

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><p>The digital clock perched on the nightstand blinked "9:52 AM". The liveliness of the illuminated digits mocked Steve while he laid on the right side of his bed face-to-face with the brightly lit numbers wondering if he was a step closer to figuring out how epileptic people felt. His head was still throbbing from the aftermath of the beatings he took straight to the face the day before. He had swallowed a good amount of aspirin pills and downed some Nyquil before he knocked out like planned, but it all felt the same once he finally got around to waking up. As if he just endured the world's worst possible hangover. "Man, it feels like the first night of camp all over again," he grumbled irritably as he slowly rolled off the bed.<p>

On most days he would have been awake by 4 AM at the latest, having already performed his morning workout and gotten breakfast by now, but today was a different day. He awoke with a bigger headache than he did when he went to sleep and the color in his bruises seemed to have turned one whole shade darker. Observing himself in the bathroom mirror, he scowled. He looked terrible. The dark circles formed under his hazel eyes were darker than usual and his whole body felt extremely lazy. Steve looked at himself like he had some sort of disease.

"Let's pray a cold shower will wake me up," he said to himself in a low voice as he shook free of the solid black boxers he went to sleep in before stepping into the shower, purposely turning the shower knob so the water would pelt his skin in a slightly colder temperature than usual.

He wasn't sure if it was the humidity of the island or if his body temperature had risen almost rapidly since the moment he got home from headquarters last night. Either way, the feel of the cold ripples on his naked skin soothed him more than he imagined the aspirin would have. Before he knew it his fingertips had begun to prune, a sign that it was time for him to force himself out from behind the shower curtain.

As he ruffled his short brown locks dry, the sound of the doorbell rang through the house. Confused, and a tad bit more awake than he was approximately forty minutes ago, he dried whatever damp skin was left untouched before wrapping the dark blue towel around his waist and making his way to the door.

The doorbell rang two more times before Steve finally got to the door, one hand yanking the handle open and the other carefully clutching the towel wrapped around his waist.

"Hey, Bo—" Kono started before the image in front of her finally came crashing down, "Ho, boy. Um…" she closed her eyes, embarrassed. "I-I'm so sorry, Boss. Is this a bad time?" she asked, afraid to completely detach her hand from in front of her face.

Hesitating to answer before finally realizing what she was referring to, he quickly shook his head to reassure her. "Uh, no, no. Sorry, I just came out of the shower. I didn't think you'd be—"

"—I can always just come back later."

"No, it's fine. I swear," he chuckled, smiling to let her know it was alright. "You just caught me at a bad time, that's all." He waited for her to realize he was giving her the okay to make herself comfortable around him. The way she slowly opened herself up to look up at him again after the whole ordeal with hesitant eyes made him smile. He hadn't realized the curl of his lips until he noticed her giggling at whatever stupid expression was plastered on his face. "Um, you want to, um..." he stifled a nervous laugh. Why was he at such a loss for words all of a sudden? I mean, it was just Kono. "Do you want to come inside for a bit? I'd hate to make you wait outside," he finally managed to muster.

Unsure of how to reply, she waited a beat before shrugging her shoulders. "Sure, why not?"

Steve held the door open for her as she squeezed past his tall frame at the doorway. "Make yourself at home. I'll be back in a bit." He left to go throw on a clean shirt and a pair of pants before turning back to a confused Kono shifting on his couch, "I'm sorry again for all of this."

"It's fine," she smiled, breathing in his recognizable scent as he neared her. She had kept herself busy by glancing around and taking in the entirety of his living room. It wasn't over-the-top glamorous. It was comfortable, just the way she liked it. His scent was musky, yet arousing. She hates to admit it but she's always been the type to be even more attracted to the kind of men who know exactly what women like to smell and Steven McGarrett definitely found himself on that list. "Nice house," she commented, trying to make things seem as normal as humanly possible. "I'm really sorry for showing up at your house last minute. It's just that you didn't show up at headquarters so I got kind of worried and decided to go check up on you in case you were home," she said with a look of concern as she rose from her seat on the couch.

"Ah, it's nothing. I blame the Nyquil," he joked which was well-received by the shorter brunette. She smiled cheekily at him in response.

Kono decreased the space that lingered between them, lifting her hand to glide over the imperfections on her boss's tainted complexion to which he reacted with a flinch. "Still hurts, huh, brah?" She jerked her hand back in reaction to his violent fidget and began to rummage through her pockets while Steve looked on at a loss.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to call Chin and tell him I found you," she muffled, her hair draped over her face while she bent down to relieve her phone from the warmth of the pocket of her denim shorts which Steve noticed were showing off the incredible length of her tanned legs. He had unknowingly shot his eyebrows up suggestively until Kono's voice thrust him out of his daze, "First Danny and now you?" she teased as she pressed the speed dial on her phone to get in direct contact with her cousin. She waited until the first ring to shift her body away from Steve's to update him on the "Find McGarrett" case. "Hey, Cuz... yeah, I found him. He's with me right now."

Kono continued conversing with Chin, pacing around the limited space she was given in Steve's living room. _First Danny and now you?_ He knew Kono was teasing like she always did, but he couldn't seem to overthink those words. He knew he shouldn't have been so drawn to her legs knowing the consequences consisted of her outing him as a pervert like a little sister would an older brother, but he couldn't seem to shake his gaze from them. They were tempting him to stroke them. Wait, when did he start thinking like this? Maybe the swollenness of the bruise below his right eye was clouding not only his vision, but his mind. Or, at least presenting him with only half of his regular mentality. He knew he already made the one mistake of getting involved with someone within the same workspace once. Catherine Rollins. After _that_ experience he promised himself he would never get involved with anyone else he worked with, and there was only one girl on the Five-0 force which was Kono Kalakaua. The day they settled the case on Roland Lowery's kidnapping, he swore he would protect her from getting caught up in that much danger again. They were like a family and they loved each other. There was no way in hell he would ever get involved in Kono. He'd hate to relive another relationship like his and Cat's again. He convinced himself that everything would go back to normal once his head stopped throbbing and the discoloration on his face healed.

That's when her words ran through his mind again. Danny? His reassurance that nothing was going on between them diminished. Immediately after Kono stuffed her phone back in her pocket and turned to face him with her familiar dimpled smile, he couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "Are you and Danny...?" he paused to let her fill in the blank.

Her eyebrows scrunched in frustration at this question. She was completely baffled. "Me and Danny? What would make you think that?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Before Chin called you said..." he shook his head, blowing it off. "A-And yesterday when I walked in on you guys—"

"— talking. We were _just_ talking, Boss."

"I told you you can call me Steve."

"I know, I'm just... at a loss for words right now. I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "Honestly, I wouldn't dare to get involved with anyone on the team. That's not right. So, no, Danny and I are not..." she trailed off, gesturing with her hands in reference to what Steve had implied.

He nodded. "Yeah. I believe you."

Kono chuckled, trying to break the awkwardness of the situation. "So, now that you're up and out of bed, do you wanna go figure out where the hell Romero's men took him this time? Unless you wanna actually listen to me this time and get that properly taken care of," she said, pointing to the evident marks. "No one's going to take you seriously with all that going for you."

He shrugged, his typical stone-faced expression in play. "I heard the ladies love bad boys," he joked.

"You know, it's really hard to tell whether you're trying to get me to take you seriously or not," she laughed. The problem with Steve was that no matter what emotion he was feeling, the expression on his face seemed to almost always represent no emotion. "Can you manage a smile every once in a while?"

"I _do_ smile. What are you talking about?" he questioned her, seemingly bewildered.

"The last time any of us have ever seen you smile was when Catherine..." she stopped herself before continuing, mentally scolding herself for mentioning her boss's ex-girlfriend's name. A distant look had glazed over Steve's eyes at the mention of her name, forcing him to shift in place as he roughly stuffed his tense hands in the front pockets of beige cargo pants. Kono took a step towards him, a sorry expression cast over her naturally tan complexion. "Steve, I'm—"

He waved her off, gesturing he didn't want to talk about it. "It's fine." He peered back at her as a small smile slowly crept across his lips. Kono could tell it was obviously forced for her benefit, but it was best to accept it as it was if she wanted to keep the case going and secure her position on the field. "Do you want to head out now? Romero could be back in the mainlands right now for all we know," he suggested her.

"Yeah, sure."

"Come on. I'll drive," he offered, ushering her back out the door to his luxury car parked beside hers in the driveway. "But I have to warn you, Danny doesn't exaggerate when he complains about my driving skills. I can go pretty fast."

Kono smiled, a small giggle escaping her delicate pink lips. "Just the way I like it," she smirked before realizing the hidden innuendo in her claim. "Well, you know what I mean," she laughed as she led the way out the door. Steve smiled, content with himself as he closed the door behind the them, jingling his keys in his hands while Kono made her way to the passenger's side of the car with Steve following shortly behind her.


End file.
